Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 12:21

"lest again when I come my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed." — 2 Corinthians 12:21 (ASV)

And lest when I come again . . .—The words do not imply more than one previous visit (Acts 18:1), but it can scarcely be said that they exclude the supposition of another. (See Note on 2 Corinthians 13:1).

My God will humble me among you.—We lose the force of the Greek verb by not seeing that it reproduces the word that has been so prominent in the Epistle, and that has appeared in 2 Corinthians 7:6, as “cast down;” in 2 Corinthians 10:1 as “base;” in 2 Corinthians 11:7 as “abasing.” There is something almost plaintive in the tone in which the Apostle speaks of the sin of his disciples as the only real “humiliation” that he has to fear. The readings vary, and one of them may be taken as a question: Will God humble me again? There is, however, it is believed, no adequate ground for altering the text.

That I shall bewail many who have sinned already.—Literally, who have sinned beforehand; leaving it uncertain what time is referred to. He may refer to sins before admission into the Church, of which they had never really repented, or to sins before the time of his writing, or before his arrival.

On the whole, the first interpretation has the most to commend it. He has in mind such persons as those described in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and suspects that some of them have not really renounced the sins that he names there. Of the three forms of evil, the first is generic and the two latter more specific; the last probably indicating the darker forms of evil. It is obvious that the words cannot refer to the incestuous offender who had repented (2 Corinthians 2:7), nor to the Church generally in connection with that offence (2 Corinthians 7:9–11). Probably he had in mind the party of license, who maintained the indifference of “eating things sacrificed to idols” and of “fornication,” just as, in the previous verse, he primarily had in mind the party of his Judaizing opponents.